Trump gives Harvard 30 days to contest end of international student enrollment
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo
BOSTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration on Thursday backed away from plans to immediately revoke Harvard University's ability to enroll international students and would instead give it 30 days to contest those plans through a lengthier administrative process.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent Harvard a notice of intent on Wednesday to withdraw the school's certification under a federal program to enroll non-U.S. students.
The Justice Department filed the notice in court ahead of a hearing before U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston over whether to extend a temporary order blocking President Donald Trump's administration from revoking the Ivy League school's right to host international students.
Citing the potential for Harvard and its students to be harmed if the administration reverted to its earlier plans, Burroughs at that hearing said she planned to issue a broad preliminary injunction preserving the status quo while the newly announced administrative process plays out.
Harvard had argued that the revocation violated its free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. In addition, Harvard contended that the revocation failed to comply with DHS regulations. The regulations required providing at least 30 days to challenge the agency's allegations and giving Harvard an opportunity to pursue an administrative appeal.
Harvard has said losing that right would affect about one quarter of its student body and devastate the school. It has denied Trump administration charges of alleged bias against conservatives, fostering antisemitism on campus and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.
The Homeland Security Department said it sent Harvard the notice after school officials indicated an intent to comply with requirements of the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows Harvard to enroll non-U.S. students.
"We continue to reject Harvard's repeated pattern of endangering its students and spreading American hate—it must change its ways to be eligible to receive generous benefits from the American people," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The revocation announced on May 22 was an escalation of the Trump administration's attack on Harvard.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university's lawyers argued the agency's action was part of an "unprecedented and retaliatory attack on academic freedom at Harvard," which is pursuing a separate lawsuit challenging the administration's decision to terminate nearly $3 billion in federal research funding.
Harvard argues the Trump administration is retaliating against it for refusing to accede to its demands to control the school's governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
The case before Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, was filed after Noem revoked the school's certification to enroll non-U.S. students.
In announcing the decision, Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party."
In a letter that day, she accused the school of refusing to comply with wide-ranging requests for information on its student visa holders, including about any activity they engaged in that was illegal or violent or that would subject them to discipline.
Harvard said the decision was devastating for the school and its student body. The university, the nation's oldest and wealthiest, enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, about 27% of its total enrollment.
The department's move would prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students and require existing ones to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Harvard University should have a 15% cap on the number of non-U.S. students it admits.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Lisa Shumaker)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malaysiakini
an hour ago
- Malaysiakini
PAS targets non-Malays amid criticism of Harapan on social media
Malay-Muslim based parties, including PAS, continue to face challenges in gaining the trust of non-Malay voters. However, PAS vice-president Amar Abdullah said there is now a new opportunity, as this group has become increasingly vocal in criticising the Pakatan Harapan government. 'We are focusing on...
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
US steps up immigration crackdown with LA raids, NY courthouse arrests
LOS ANGELES (United States): Masked and armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles Friday, while others pounced on migrants at a New York courthouse in forceful displays of US President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. From courthouses to hardware store parking lots in two of the most diverse cities in the world, federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles. Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people. At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported. - 'Terror' - 'As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,' LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. 'These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who grew up in LA's Santa Monica, insisted on social media platform X that Bass had 'no say in this at all.' 'Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.' Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports. 'Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,' Huerta said in a statement after his release. Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported. The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported. - NY courthouse arrests - Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday. AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lay face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested. It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested. Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants. ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January. One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said. 'He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,' the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him. The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom. The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. 'They're illegal abductions,' said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants. 'We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away,' she told AFP. Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
ICE raids spark outrage in LA, NYC amid migrant crackdown
LOS ANGELES (United States): Masked and armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles Friday, while others pounced on migrants at a New York courthouse in forceful displays of US President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. From courthouses to hardware store parking lots in two of the most diverse cities in the world, federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles. Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people. At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported. - 'Terror' - 'As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,' LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. 'These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who grew up in LA's Santa Monica, insisted on social media platform X that Bass had 'no say in this at all.' 'Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.' Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports. 'Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,' Huerta said in a statement after his release. Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported. The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported. - NY courthouse arrests - Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday. AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lay face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested. It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested. Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants. ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January. One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said. 'He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,' the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him. The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom. The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. 'They're illegal abductions,' said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants. 'We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away,' she told AFP. Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
